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THE COWARD
By Genevieve Ulmar.
(Copyright by W. G. Chapman.)
A lonely, homeless man passed
in front of a new bank "building
.and watched the crowds enter and
, -depart with a token of dull inter
est in his weary eyes. Old men
and women, young ladies and lit
" -'i&- a ""s
1 Seemed to Lapse Jnto a Profound
tie children, all chattering and
happy, passed by the desks and
counters loaded with a small for
tune in carnations and roses.
"Opening day" "new bank"
"giving souvenirs," fell upon the
ears of the friendless man. With
out persuasion or motive, simply
influenced by the .general sway-
insr movement of the throng, he
found himself one of a long line.
As his turn came to face a coun
ter, he was handed out a beautiful
rose in full bloom with a long
stem.
"Married?" was all the floral
distributor had asked. The man
had nodded sadly. "Any chil
dren?" he was asked as he passed
a second counter. The man gave
a start as if waking up, and a
pretty picture book was handed
him. Carrying both in a half
dazed way, he crossed the street,
sat down on a doorstep, and, his
eyes fixed on the two souvenirs;
he seemed to lapse into a pro
found day dream.
If any person had asked this
man as to his identity, he would
have said, "I am The Coward."
For two years in his own humble
and distracted mind that opinion
he had not only expressed, but in
deep self abnegation he had verily
believed it. Now he was-beard-ed,
bronzed, and bore the marks
of weather, climate and toil.
Twenty-four months previously
he had been J6hn Dunbar, inven
tor, in this same town, a delicate,'
sensitive man, impracticable as to
business, devoting his life to the
completion of an invention that-
had been its one dream.
Working on the perfection of
his model and then waiting for
capital, knowing only how to
think and not to work, his re
sources had dwindled away, and
his father-in-law, Judge Graham,
stern and merciless, had come to
him one day.
"Give up your idle dreaming
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